E-Commerce

Overview

In an unprecedented manner, COVID-19 had not only forced us to close our owned and operating bars, but the entire city as well. Because our manufacturing and take-out businesses had been deemed “essential” by New York State, we were permitted to sell beer-to-go and via delivery, and we rolled out a nationwide shipping service.

Ultimately, much has changed and has moved quickly as we've grown this E-Commerce business. Every assumption is a best guess with little precedent. We have a good feeling for the possibilities of what this could become, but right now it’s unclear what shape it will ultimately take. Please read this through with that lens.

Core beliefs

• Local food & beverage matters

• Good beer should be easy to buy

• Delivery workers are essential workers

Motivation (Internal position)

• Develop direct relationships with all of our customers (own the distribution channel)

• Expand footprint to Manhattan and all of Brooklyn

• Give jobs to our laid-off workers

• Beat Caviar margins

• Use as a bridge to keep the lights on and parlay into a much larger thing when the world starts again

Economics

At launch, we were just trying to sell our beer and make it a great customer experience. We were overstaffing and losing money in the early days, much the way we did when we opened the brewery. We are now fine-tuning the margins here to streamline our unit economics. Basic customer fees are as follows:

• Pickup: no minimum order, no additional fees

• Same-Day Shipping: see shipping costs here

• Delivery: $9 fee up to $48.99 / $5 fee $49-$98.99 / FREE $99 and up

Key Resources

• Notes from The Shop Daily Standup Meeting

• Job Descriptions for everyone on the team

• Weekly Staffing Schedule

• Safety Requirements

Fulfillment

Command center

• Oversight: Jared is team captain with Rob on inventory and delivery and Alyssa leading packaging/shipping & delivery. Miriam on support.

• Shopify is the source of truth for all order and customer info

• Links to SOPs for each step coming soon

Inventory Management (Rob)

• Inventory Tracker lives here and Shopify

Delivery (Rob, Miriam)

• Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, Parts of The Bronx and Westchester

• The website does zip code validation so it'll be much easier to message; master geography list and routing info here

• We guarantee same-day delivery for orders in by 7pm; the website has a time slot feature that users can choose from

• All drivers are covered under their own coverage, with the exception of rentals/the van

• Orders are born in Shopify Deliveries

• They autofill into Delivery Plan & Log

Pickup (Onsite Retail: The Shop)

• Orders come in pickup from walk-ins and the web (Shopify)

Shipping (Alyssa, Miriam)

• Most states - shipping method dependent on state laws

• All orders go out in one business day

• Carrier costs are something we're subsidizing at this stage, however we will modify later (See sheet for details)

• Supply Inventory is here

Crowlers (Will)

• Our availability of what we are offering is based on what we have downstairs.

• When we fill crowlers we must track how many we fill each day.

Website

Platform

• Shopify is the system we are using for all online e-commerce (login info is in 1Password)

• Each employee has a user account

Updating Products (Rob)

• Since James owns all inventory, he owns uploading and 86'ing items on the site

• Instructions for how to set up crowler images

• All new items should be "tagged" with the proper attributes and values. GUIDE HERE

86'ing Products

1) Click "Product Availability" and remove "Google Shopping" and "Point of Sale", but leave the others

2) Find "Product Type" and remove the word BEER so the page is blank.

3) Copy & paste the bolded text below at the very top of the main product description, including the line break after. Note: the link should copy & paste, but just in case, it goes to the main beer page.

THIS PRODUCT IS CURRENTLY SOLD OUT. VISIT OUR BEER PAGE TO SEE WHAT STYLES ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE.

_______________________________________________

4) Confirm inventory is 0 in all locations. This is critical or the product can be sold if someone finds it.

5) Preview page and make sure it looks ok.

6) Save and publish.

7) Earn clicks from Google and elsewhere, even though our products are out of stock.

Reactivating (87'ing)

1) Click "Product Availability" and add Google Shopping & POS (if you don't activate the latter, the on-site staff won't be able to sell to walk-ins).

2) Re-Add "BEER" as product type. That will make it discoverable in the site navigation from the beer page, filters, etc.

3) Remove "THIS PRODUCT IS CURRENTLY SOLD OUT" copy.

4) Update inventory to whatever levels we are stocking at.

5) Preview page and make sure it looks ok.

6) Save and publish.

7) Sell product.